Friday, February 17, 2012

Against All Odds – Finding the Romance

First off, Defying Gravity isn’t your typical romance. In fact, it has a
very big problem. The main characters only catch a glimpse each other before
they are captured and divided by a rock wall with just a small crack to hear
each other’s voices. Like the ill-fated and wall-divided lovers Pyramus and Thisbe from Roman mythology,
I had to discover a way for the characters to fall in love without sight.

Alezandros is a Medusan. Linia is a Persean. They live on two very different
planets, since Medusa is a post-apocalyptic planet and Persea is in its prime.
Their peoples hate each other. Everything is stacked up against them, so how do
they fall in love?

Well, not to give everything away, I focused on the characters, their
relationships. I used glimpses of their family, their lives to show how similar
they were. To find that common bond between them that could grow into so much
more.

When writing romance, I believe it helps to find that connection between the
characters. The writer must think about all the aspects in the characters’
lives. Lust can turn into love, but a strong foundation will make the love all
that more realistic. Opposites may attract, but I think it’s the similarities,
the bonds that deepen the romance and love.

I hope that’s what I managed to portray in Defying Gravity.

A question for writers: How do you build relationships in your works?

Thank you, Misha, for having me on your lovely blog!

Defying Gravity by Cherie Reich

Book Description: Homesick upon the SS Perseid, Linia, a young linguist, thinks
she signed up for a mission of peace, but her crew members have another plan:
attack the planet Medusa.

Bored with his dying planet, Alezandros, a space cruiser pilot, joins the
Medusan Army in his quest for adventure.

When the SS Perseid clashes with the Medusans’ space cruisers, Alezandros and
Linia’s lives intertwine. Sucked through a wormhole, they crash upon a
post-apocalyptic Earth and are captured by cannibals. In adjacent cells,
Alezandros and Linia cast their differences aside for a common bond: escape.
But when romantic feelings emerge between them, they might do the unthinkable
because for a Medusan and a Persean to fall in love, it would defy gravity.

AmazonAuthor Bio: Cherie Reich is a writer, freelance editor and library assistant.
She enjoys writing horror, fantasy, and mysteries, but she doesn’t let that
stop her from trying other genres. Her short stories have appeared in magazines
and anthologies, and her e-books include Once Upon a December Nightmare, The
Best of Raven and the Writing Desk, and Defying Gravity. She is a member of the
Virginia Writers Club and Valley Writers and placed third in RoanokeValley’s
BIG READ writing contest.

55 comments:

I am so anxious to read Defying Gravity, I love how you have described the relationship between Linia and Alezandros. Developing a relationship through a barrier like that must have been quite a challenge, and I am curious to read about it. Great post, Cherie!

I bought Defying Gravity one day 1 and read it that afternoon. I couldn't put it down. It's a great story and very well written. As for relationships in my works, I've used some reality and some fantasy=)

Great post! I agree it's about similarities rather than differences that make relationships work. There has to be common ground or else it would be chaos. Some differences are important, especially traits in the characters that help the other grow to be better.

*laughs* Me too! I actually played Snug the Joiner (the lion) in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Silly me didn't even realize how Pyramus and Thisbe-like it was until I finished the book and several edits on it. Aww, thanks, Dianne! I hope you enjoy the sample, and the book too, if you choose to purchase it. :)

Oh wow - love the description for Defying Gravity! Sounds like a good mix of romance with a little FarScape-esque fantasy thrown in. :)

About making our characters fall for each other...I like to build up trust and friendship by showing their unique vulnerabilities, then just as they feel like something might be there, I throw in a little doubt again. And it just keeps building from there. Good romantic tension comes when the characters, and the readers, know there's a spark, but they also have very legitimate reasons not to act on it right away. :)

Hi Misha, Hi Cherie! I love this story! I love the story of star-crossed lovers falling in love with a rock between them imprisoned by post apocalyptic cannibals! How wonderful! Thanks for a most thought provoking interview - opposites may attract but it's the similarities that draw two souls together! Yay!

Oh, I LOVE the premise. Sounds intriguing. :)Misha, I'm back! I've been unable to access most blogs due to new parental control software. I'm not sure if it kept my kids from any bad sites, but it kept me from a lot of good ones. ;)

How do I build relationships in my works... Good question! Um... Hmm. I believe that characters have to interact in order to fall in love (no such thing as love at first sight!) and the interaction I love the most is dialogue. Yay dialogue! So I guess I use a lot of that.